Articles Archive for August 2007

Some people you can really count on. Some you can’t count on at all.
Both statements pretty much sum up Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. As in “you can count on not being able to count on him.”
Blagojevich recently signed a pay raise for legislators, after promising during his campaign that he would definitely not sign any such pay raise. Oops.
As one legislator of the governor’s own party put it: “He’ll say anything and do the exact opposite. For him to do a complete flip-flop, I would say, it’s the only consistent …

Even though he has not yet committed to run for President of the United States, I’m with Fred Thompson, former Republican United States Senator from Tennessee, and I will work for his nomination and election should he formally announce as is now widely expected. As a lifelong Republican and veteran of several successful Republican presidential campaigns, here are my reasons.
First, many of my motivations are shared by innumerable “Fredheads” throughout the country and have been widely publicized in the national press. Fred is known as a congenial right …

Brutal storms hit Northern Illinois Thursday, knocking down massive trees, and cutting power to hundreds of thousands of customers in Cook and Lake County. Heroic and commendable efforts were made by the many utility crews and emergency workers that rose to the occasion, working double shifts to restore electric service and remove trees from roadways. All around, the normal routine is returning and neighborhoods are being tidied up to their pre-storm level.
Which brings up the question, what was the pre-storm level? In the 21st century, throughout much of Chicago (excluding …

DEMOCRATS made earmark reform a campaign issue in 2006 — and a reality in 2007 — because earmarks were at the heart of corruption scandals in Washington. Democrats never promised to eliminate earmarks. We promised to reform them.

There is no joy in Jesuitville today, or less of it than a week ago when another Rev. Donald McGuire sexual-abuse victim filed suit. This one is not proven as victim, like those who testified in McGuire’s conviction last year in Wisconsin, but far more recently abused – 1999 to 2003 – per the complaint, and in Cook County, coming well under the statutory limitation, which heretofore has ruled prosecution out here.
The Jesuits heard the accusation, by a 21-year-old college student, in January and informed the office of Loyola Academy …

A Huge Victory In Illinois…
The employment contracts of public employees, even if they are contained within a personnel file, are public records under Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act, Illinois’ 4th District Appellate Court has ruled.

Do you know who Kamisha Block is?
Why should you?
How about Zandra Worthy-Walker, Princess Samuels, or Alicia Birchett (mother of three young boys)? They are Iraq war dead from the month of August, Iraq female war dead, that is. They join the other 81 American servicewomen who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan since the start of the American invasion.
That’s right, 85: more than five times the American female death toll for the whole of the Vietnam War. When the number passes 100, will anyone outside …

He may go down as Illinois’ slighter variant of the late Louisiana governor Earl Long.
Gov. Blagojevich has vetoed, among other things, a measly 3% cost-of-living raise for the most essential workers in public services…not the nurses and physicians…but the workers who dispense the most menial—yet most essential—services…from sanitation to personally treating the handicapped, the chronically ill, the mentally indigent, those suffering from addiction and other forms of physical abuse. He has saved $3 million out of an estimated $60 billion in services…$3 million to pay these people…$3 million …

The door at my local Blockbuster video store is labeled “entrance.” Right below, for Latinos who might be puzzled, appears the word “entrada.” Over at the local Home Depot, the word “electrico” appears on a large overhead banner, in case any Spanish-speaking customer can’t read the other word there: “electrical.”

‘We will be in Iraq in some way for nine to 10 years,’ ” Schakowsky read carefully. She had added her own translation: “Keep the train running for a few months, and then stretch it out. Just enough progress to justify more time.”
Jan Schackowsky’s trip to Iraq is profiled in the Washington Post.